Hair care’s least sexy segment is increasingly becoming among its most in demand.
Over-the-counter hair products, or those that use FDA-regulated ingredients to treat medical conditions like dandruff and hair loss, are surging as consumers seek to optimize their scalp health. This means opportunity for new players to stake their claims in the spaces through meaningful differentiation, but even the categories’ dominant brands are eyeing new formats, product expansions and marketing strategies, and looking to address increasingly varied customer cohorts.
“We see hair care as a big lever of growth for the future,” said Damien Favre, president of L’Oréal’s Dermatological Beauty division.
With brands like La Roche-Posay and Skinceuticals, the division is currently skin care-dominant but growing its share in hair, so far via a dandruff-focused CeraVe hair care debut in 2024, and the Stateside launch of Vichy Dercos’ existing, more prestige offerings in the category which already dominate in Europe. “Our first results have beat our expectations, and we have plans to grow this category even more,” Favre continued.
CeraVe is leveraging pyrithione zinc, ceramides and L’Oréal’s Gen-Z marketing muscle to bet big on dandruff.
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The opportunity is big: Data from NIQ shows that while dandruff care comprises just 3.5 percent of total U.S. hair care sales, the segment grew 8.8 percent during the last 12 months. Certain subcategories are growing even faster, with dandruff treatments up 14.5 percent versus total treatments’ 13.2 percent growth, while dandruff shampoos and conditioners are up 8.6 percent, outpacing total shampoo/conditioner’s 6.5 percent growth.
Hair growth products — inclusive of non-OTC offerings — meanwhile grew 9.8 percent in the U.S., reaching $896.6 million.
“We’re seeing scalp care benefit directly from the rise of skin care-inspired routines,” said Anna Mayo, vice president of NIQ’s Beauty Vertical, adding, though, “the category remains highly concentrated, with leading mass brands continuing to anchor the majority of sales.”
In the U.S., ingredients approved for dandruff treatment include pyrithione zinc and selenium sulfide — favored by players like Head & Shoulders, CeraVe, Jupiter and Selsun Blue — ketoconazole, which is Nizoral’s active of choice, and salicylic acid, used in Vichy Dercos’ Anti-Dandruff Serum, Neutrogena’s T/Sal shampoo and more.
Minoxidil, which was first commercialized by Rogaine in 1988, remains the only topical ingredient FDA-approved for treatment of adrogenetic alopecia. While many other brands have now adopted the ingredient — and lean into a lower price point to compete — Rogaine continues to be a top shareholder.
Rogaine’s core men’s and women’s minoxidil offerings.
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The Kenvue-owned brand is best known for its Men’s 5% Minoxidil Foam, which most retailers sell for $60 for a three-pack. Last year though, Rogaine entered hair care for the first time with a $14.49 Hair Thickening 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner, and this year, it added two more 2-in-1s — a “Pre Growth” formula featuring exfoliating acids and another for anti-dandruff, powered by salicylic acid.
“Playing in scalp care and helping that healthy growth to be more effective is just a natural expansion of the hair regrowth category,” said Salim Mokhtari, global head of Rogaine. “These shampoo and conditioners have various effects on the skin, but what they really do is create the soil for minoxidil to be able to work most effectively, and we’ve seen a lot of consumer demand for that.”
The brand is also increasingly focusing on women, who Mokhtari said have driven almost 40 percent of Rogaine’s growth this year, and looking to rev up both its cultural savvy and R&D engine.
“A brand that has been around for 35 years needs to reinvent itself, and we are reinventing ourselves; you’ll see it more in the coming few months, but we have a huge creative transformation of Rogaine as a brand that’s going to be closer to culture, closer to communities, but more importantly, allowing and educating both men and women consumers that hair regrowth is possible, and hair loss is not just a given,” Mokhtari said.
Rogaine’s closest competitor for its core minoxidil business is Costco’s private-label Kirkland Signature line, which sells a six-pack of men’s 5 percent foam for $50. But in dandruff, the brand is also in the arena with Nizoral, which sells more than 150,000 units of its anti-dandruff ketoconazole shampoo each month on Amazon, as well as P&G-owned Head & Shoulders. The latter remains the number-one brand by dandruff shampoo sales but it isn’t resting on its laurels.
“The idea that dandruff requires shampoo-based treatment in a world where wash frequency is down [is changing]…we are super engaged in developing new spaces, new vectors of sensation and treatment, and new usage occasions,” said John Brownlee, senior vice president and general manager of North America hair care at P&G Beauty.
In January, Head & Shoulders added a $13 Itchy Scalp Relief Serum to its Bare franchise, which was introduced in 2023 and is geared toward sensitive skin. In June, it debuted a Glacier Mint Shampoo which, like the Bare serum, taps menthol and is meant to offer cooling, immediate itch relief in addition to long-term results.
Head & Shoulders Bare Itchy Scalp Relief Serum joins the fast-growing subcategory of dandruff treatments.
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“The idea of not just treating chronic root causes or acute symptoms, but doing both at the same time so that you’re getting a signal of [immediate] improvement, while the hard work is happening on the back end to actually fix it over time, is a powerful dual modality for product design,” Brownlee said.
And while NIQ reports that the top three mass players account for 75 percent of dandruff shampoo sales in the U.S., Vichy Dercos’ introduction to the market, plus the emergence of startups like Jupiter, which is sulfate-free and estimated by industry sources to be doing between $20 million and $30 million in retail sales, mean the category has a more nascent opportunity for the prestige treatment.
Jupiter, which in 2025 gained investment from True Beauty Ventures, offers an $88 anti-dandruff trio of products.
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“A brand who can marry both clinical and experiential certainly has opportunity to win,” said Cassie Cowman, cofounder of beauty consultancy View From 32, noting, though, “the volumes that come from playing in mass are what have deterred the prestige players from trying to make a larger mark in this space.”
Still, “there could be an opportunity to blend expertise with science in a fun, more modern way. What I mean by that is a Dr. Idriss of hair; a stylist and a trichologist pairing sensorial and science in a fresh way,” she added.
